The Lightbulb Moment

So, as with any good story it is always best to start at the beginning and although Amy has filled you in on where our friendship began, I thought that it might be a good idea to share with you where the idea for Rosie and Radish began!

Picture the scene... it's a quirky craft fair (my third venture into the world of craft fairs) and Amy's first. Amy thought she would trial run her greeting card designs on my stall. She had come up with the name 'Radish' for her range and I was exhibiting my illustrated cards and pictures under the name 'Miss Rosie Blue'. Despite all the lovely stalls the passing trade was a little bit quiet which, on the upside, meant we had lots of time to talk about life, love and our big dreams. 

The Miss Rosie Blue/ Radish Extravaganza at the craft fair.

Joining in our discussion was a lady on the next stall who made fantastic handbags and also dealt out excellent advice. She said, and I quote...

"You girls are missing a trick here. Why don't you go into business together? Between the two of you, you have all the skills and ideas you need."

Talk about a lightbulb moment. FLASH!

For years we had joked about it, but something about that moment just made it suddenly seem like it might just work, especially when said Lovely Handbag-Maker/ Life Guru clicked her fingers and said,

"You even have a catchy name there - Rosie Radish!"

That night a texting frenzy started...

Amy: I can't stop thinking about a future Rosie Radish business venture. I really think it could work! V exciting!

Me: I think it has lots of potential too! Wonder what Alan Sugar would make of that one ;)

Amy: (early next morning) I've had a Rosie Radish brainwave in my sleep...I'm going to arrange a meeting with a business adviser ASAP!!!!

You get the picture by now don't you?! Let's just say we were both a wee bit excited and desperate to get started. We had our first meeting with the businesss adviser within a week and when he didn't think us or our idea was nuts or unachieveable that was the vote of confidence we needed to really get the ball rolling...

Initial sketches - is that a little Radish I can see?!

Our second business meeting...

Initial website ideas...

Love,

Helen

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Snap Happy

Even after a few minor hiccups I am pleased to tell you that the first Rosie and Radish photo shoot was a success. Hurrah!

After misplacing the keys to our original venue we decided to fly by the seat of our pants and set up our shoot in Helen’s parents garden in the beautiful Durham countryside. And boy are we glad we did! Filled with apple trees, flowers and quirky hidden pathways it proved to be the perfect setting for Rosie and Radish to run riot and play hide and seek amongst the greenery.

After a few improvised radish leaves, a greenhouse invasion and a whole lot of snapping our mission was complete. Here is a sneaky peek of our favourites …

And the fun certainly didn’t stop there. Not only was I going to go home with a hard drive full of photos but also a cute, hairy, scruffy male admirer … of the canine variety. It is safe to say Helen’s little dog Ralph took a bit of a shine to me throughout the day. Now a children’s lifestyle brand blog is neither the place nor platform to describe the extent of this ‘shine’ but lets just say Ralph provided me with the most male attention I’ve had in a while! 

So that’s the photos and my love life sorted, now its all hands on deck and a race against time to build our super duper website! 

Amy Xx

We really do mean business!

Rosie and radish HQ received their first print order through the post today. Yes, thats right folks ... we really do mean business!

'So you have business cards, but where are all your products' I hear you cry! Well fear not. Tomorrow we will be donning our art direction hats and spending the day photographing our very first Rosie and Radish range ... we have cards, prints and props galore!

Watch this space for a bit of behind the scenes action. We can't wait to get started!

Amy Xx

Where It All Began

So you’ve met the troublesome duo now its time to meet us. 

Myself (Amy) and Helen have been friends for years. 14 years to be exact. We met whilst studying Art Foundation at Newcastle College back in 1999. My first memory of Helen was watching her draw a Raymond Briggs inspired drawing for one of our projects and thinking how talented she was … it was AMAZING. I dread to think what her first memory of me was. It is probably a story involving a few too many Smirnoff Ice, Baja Beach club or my 90’s bleached hair do. I’ll leave that blog post up to her!

After Art Foundation we both found ourselves in the East Midlands studying Graphic Design at The Nottingham Trent University. This was where the fun and friendship really began. We were two of the founding members of the infamous Graphics Girls … A collective group of girls who bonded over their love of tea, chocolate, wine and cheesy chips. Oh, and graphic design of course. We spent our three years together wisely and both graduated in 2003 with a 2:1 in Graphic Design and an impressive repertoire of Nottingham’s finest cheesy chip outlets.

After uni we both headed back up to Newcastle but my itchy feet didn’t keep me there long. I soon found myself down in London working as a designer for a publishing house. Helen stayed up in the North East and found her fame illustrating a number of books for Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Egmont. And that was us. Both ticking along nicely and meeting up several times a year to embark on various Graphics Girls jollies around the UK.

Then at the end of last year I decided I’d had enough of the big smoke and I came home. I’d meet up with Helen and we would sit and drink hot chocolate, eat scones and ponder about life. What was it all about? Why does work not excite us anymore? How can we do a job that we truly love? Should we get cream on our hot chocolate? And then it hit us. Like an epiphany. And Rosie & Radish was born.

Amy Xx

Can You Keep A Secret?

Hello World,

My name is Helen and I would like to share a little secret with you…

For over 10 years myself and my very good friend Amy have joked about setting up our own business. Up until now this has remained a little pie in the sky, floating around only to pop up after a few too many glasses of vino.

Well let me tell you that that little pie has been baked to perfection and after a lot of hard work, Amy and I are very proud to introduce two little characters that are very close to our hearts – meet Rosie, our pink-cheeked little heroine.

Sweet, charming and often led into mischievous situations by the irrepressibly cheeky Radish (Rosie’s pet mouse!)

These two little characters refuse to be constrained by our sketchbooks any longer. Rumour has it that they can currently be found on a range of paper goods and gifts stocked in the quirkiest and most charming of little shops. Watch this space – the future is looking Rosie!

Love
Helen


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